This invention is directed to the treatment of hair with a composition which includes the combination of a silicone gum and an amine function polysiloxane fluid. Such blends have been found to impart conditioning benefits to the hair.
Hair preparations are compositions which are employed on the scalp or hair. The most important hair preparations are shampoos, conditioning products, colorants, hairstyling preparations including setting lotions and hairsprays, and permanent wave preparations.
Shampoos are mild cosmetic products for cleaning the hair and scalp. Hair becomes soiled due to skin flakes, sebum, perspiration, dust, and residues from sprays, lotions and conditioning agents. Shampoos are designed to leave the hair clean, pliable, lustrous, possessing a pleasant odor, and easy to untangle, comb, manage, and style. The principal ingredient of a shampoo is a surfactant which functions to release dirt from the hair and to transport it to the aqueous medium. Since consumers equate lathering with cleanliness, anionic surfactants such as alkyl sulfates and sulfonates are preferred because of their high lather. Numerous other constituents are included in shampoos such as thickeners to prevent the shampoo from running down the face into the eyes, opacifiers to provide a rich pleasing pearlescent appearance, buffers to adjust the pH of the shampoo to a value which is gentle to the skin, and fragrances to impart a pleasant aroma to the washed hair following rinsing. Most frequently, shampoos are marketed as clear products although gels having a higher viscosity and packaged in tubes, and pearlescent compositions are available.
With the advent of consumer trends toward daily hair washing, conditioning shampoos have emerged which are designed to render the hair easy to comb and tangle free in the wet state, as well as glossy and soft when dry. Such conditioning is provided by the inclusion in the shampoo of a cationic polymer which upon rinsing produces a thin film on the hair. This film functions as a lubricant when the hair is wet and prevents static charge and "flyaway" when the hair is dry.
Conditioning may also be provided by hair conditioning products designed solely for that purpose such as rinses, mousses, aerosols, and pump sprays, which conditioners are applied following shampooing. These conditioning products are rinsed from the hair a short time following their application. Such conditioners prevent excessive split ends and other mechanical hair damage and roughening, and seek to neutralize the adverse effects which hair undergoes due to humidity, temperature, exposure to sunlight, frequent washing, combing, and brushing, and cosmetic treatments such as bleaching, dyeing, and waving.
It is known in the art to employ an amine functional silicone fluid in a hair conditioning shampoo as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,227 issued Dec. 17, 1985. It is also known in the art to employ silicone gums in hair conditioning shampoos as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,272 issued Nov. 3, 1987. What is not taught by the prior art and what constitutes the novel feature of the present invention is the use of a blend of both an amine functional silicone fluid and a silicone gum in the treatment of hair.
While silicone gums and non-polar fluids such as polydimethylsiloxanes have been shown to provide effective conditioning benefits to hair, the conditioning effect is relatively non-substantive. According to the present invention, this disadvantage is overcome by blending the silicone gum with a silicone having polar amine groups along the siloxane chain. Such blends have much improved deposition properties versus blends of silicone gums with non-polar fluids. Not only do the blends of the present invention improve wet combing, but they impart durable and long-lasting conditioning benefits. Further, the blends are low in viscosity with the result that pumping and mixing are facilitated.